What kind of sugar substitute do you use?

Hi catjane, I gather you're a diabetic? Here's some quick thoughts about sweeteners - not intended to please the chemical vendors, but seriously worth considering since it's our health that's at stake... 1. The artificial sweeteners are pretty much all dubious. They discovered that Saccharin caused cancer in lab-rats years ago. Ditto Cyclamate based sweeteners. Both got banned for human consumption as a result, but there's moves afoot to re-approve both (if it hasn't already happened). 2. Aspartame (as used in Nutrasweet) is allegedly a cumulative neurotoxin which has insidious long-term effects. 3. The jury is still out on Sucralose (which is used in Splenda) but you'll find there's some controversy about this sweetener already, based on it's chlorinated structure. If it's anything like all the previous artificial sweeteners, we won't see detrimental effects until people's eyes start falling out or something similar, about 15 years down the track. 4. ALL those artificial sweeteners were approved by the FDA. That's relevant, because there's a certain amount of evidence that each of these substances is not entirely safe - see [ www.sweetpoison.com/aspartame-sweeteners.html ]... 5. The FDA apparently made a concerted effort to ban American access to Stevia, which is a natural herbal sweetener tha is safe for diabetics. I believe that it's only available in the USA now as a "dietary supplement", ie, it's illegal to market it as a "sweetener" (???). From reading on the subject, I get the sense that the FDA is acting to protect the commercial interests of the domestic pharmaceutical and sugar industries. 6. Stevia has been used by indigenous South Americans for centuries, and is used extensively in Japan, Brazil and a few other countries. I have a Stevia bush growing in a pot on my back porch, and the leaves are indeed very sweet. The bottom line is that there's big bucks in the low-calorie sweetener industry, both for diabetics and for people trying to manage their weight. So you really can't trust anything the manufacturers (or the FDA) say about them - all they can see is the dollar signs. You MUST do your own research and satisfy yourself that what you're onto is both good for your needs and safe to use. I'm quite happy to just use plain old sugar, or honey, to sweetne things when I need it. And if I ever need to cater for a diabetic or two, I'll head for the Stevia every time. But my personal choice is to stay well away from any of the artificial sweeteners on the market - any hint of "artificial" gets those alarm bells ringing.

I use sugarine.type2, Very hard to manage if you have sweet tooth, sometimes my sugar goes up as high 23.6 when its low 1.7 sometimes in my sleep i feel having headache that's when I check and it's so low.I take tablets 3/a day gloucovance and avandia. I'm over weight 20 kilos, my problem lazy to walk n exercise.But I do all housework in the house that keep me so busy and no time for my self.now I'm careful with my food intake.

my mom uses palsweet and equal

Usually, I try to cut the sugar in 1/4 and use splenda for the remaing part. I love sweets too, and my sugar is not bad enough that I have to cut all of my sugar out... THank Heavens!!!